Ties that Bind
by TemporalPotato
Summary: Venturing through the Kalos region, an upcoming trainer and his friends will undergo a series of adventures that will help shape them as people as they meet new acquaintances, friends, and rivals. Will they become closer or will they inevitably become distant? Follow alongside them and witness their change over time.


Dew droplets slowly slid across the vibrant, slick green surface of the grass, creating a myriad of glistening, sparkling lights as the sun's rays reflected off of the droplets surface. The morning rays of the sun bathed the landscape in a multitude of orange hues, signaling the arrival of a new day. A flock of pidgeys and pidgeotto soared through the clouds, gently swaying side to side over the horizon as the sun slowly peeked in between two rugged mountains. A stray pidgey flew towards a rather well ordained two story house, perching itself on the edge of an open window. As it gently landed, a clicking sound, followed by a bright flash startled the wild pokemon, causing it to rejoin it's now distant flock. A girl with shoulder-length, messy black hair and wearing a light rose tank top with light blue short shorts examined the area where the Pidgey had momentarily been. Her large crystal blue eyes radiated with joy as she inspected the picture being displayed on the screen of her pink and black digital camera tightly tucked in her soft pale hands. She let out a small excited squeal and quickly rushed out of her bedroom and barged right through - with little to no effort - into her brother's room. She leaped in place and shook her brother in an attempt to awaken him and show him her oh so precious picture she had taken.

"Look, Axel look!" The young girl exclaimed all the while placing her camera mere centimeters from the poor boy's face, causing it to hit him with each jerk she gave him. Being woken up by your little sister constant pestering is one thing, being hit in the face by a camera before you even have the chance to fully register what is going on, is another. Groggy yet in pain, the boy who laid in his bed slowly sat himself up, locks of black hair slightly covering his crystal blue eyes. He swept his hair to one side and examined the picture his sister was so eager to show.

"Oh, wow." Axel groggily replied as he rubbed his eyes, hoping to focus his sight and have a better perception of the picture. "How did you manage to take this picture so up close?"

"The Pidgey landed on my window when I was adjusting the lense on my camera!" The girl excitedly responded. "The picture came out good, didn't it?" She looked up to her brother with hopeful eyes.

"Well, I have to admit, for a picture taken so quickly without proper planning, it came out pretty good." He gave his sister a reassuring thumbs up, filling her with joy and confidence. "I like the scene behind it. The distant flock and the mountains in the background really bring out the Pidgey."

Axel further praised his younger sister. "I've gotta hand it to 'ya, you've got a knack for this kind of stuff, Elizabeth." At hearing her brother's praise, Elizabeth could hardly hold her excitement and joy any longer as her brother's reassuring words fueled her passion.

"Thank you so much, Axel!" Elizabeth exclaimed gleefully as she tackled her brother into a tight hug. Axel merely laughed alongside his sister as he struggled to free himself from her grasp, but failing to do so. As both siblings laughed and played, both failed to hear the door open, be it on purpose or not.

"Oh my, aren't we in a good mood today." At the entrance of the room, a woman with long, slick black hair leaned on the wooden door frame with both arms crossed. Her light blue eyes radiating a certain motherly warmth as she witnessed both siblings playing.

"Hey Mom." Axel happily greeted her as he managed to push his sister off of him. Elizabeth simply directed a wave and a playful smile at her followed by a giggle.

"May I ask what's going on here?" Their mother inquired with a soft laugh as she instinctively began picking up some clothes that were lying on the floor.

"Elizabeth came to show me a picture she took." Axel answered and as if on cue, Elizabeth grabbed her camera that laid amongst the bedsheets and quickly went to show her mother, stumbling a bit on the aforementioned sheets as she stood up.

"Look look!" Elizabeth exclaimed as she was practically shoving her camera at her mother's face. "What do you think!? Is it good?" Taken aback from her daughter's sudden energetic burst, their mother had to take a step back and gently take the camera into her own hands as a precautionary measure before Elizabeth could smack her in the face with it.

"Wow, what a lovely picture!" Their mother exclaimed with a certain joy in her tone. She took a while analyzing the picture, her thumb slightly caressing the screen. Silence fell around them. Their mother seemed as if she had fallen in a deep trance, dismissing everything around her. Both siblings merely looked at each other with quizzical eyes, beckoning the other to address their mother's sudden stillness and hopefully shed light on her strange change of mood.

"Um, mom? Are you ok?" Elizabeth finally inquired in a soft tone as she gently lowered the camera currently in her mother's grasp. With her daughter's words finally registering, their mother jerked back at the sudden realization of her state.

"Oh, Oh my. Sorry dear, I was just...remembering old times." She giggled a bit before once more looking at the picture with a certain look that yearned for the past. Elizabeth turned to her brother with a puzzled look on her face, seeking some sort of answer from her brother and yet Axel simply shrugged as he was as clueless as her on the subject.

As all three remained silent once more, a distinctive odor made its way through the room. Axel gave a few wafts before pinpointing a familiar smell. Shortly after, black smoke began creeping through the room as a bad omen.

"Is something burning?" Axel inquired. Once she caught scent of the smell, their mother's eyes shut open, a cold feeling washing over her back as she came to realize her dreadful mistake.

"The Muffins!" She screamed before hurriedly tossing the camera back to Elizabeth and dashing out of her son's room in a panic.

"Well," Elizabeth sighed. ",there goes breakfast...again…" Just the day before, their mother had done the exact same thing. She had left some eggs on the stove unattended, and lo and behold they were charred to a crisp, rendering them inedible.

"Don't worry," Axel reassured his sister as he lifted himself from his bed, "We can always pick up something at one of the cafès in Aquacorde." He suggested while straightening his bed sheets. Elizabeth's' crestfallen attitude turned to one of glee at the mention of the cafès and the sweet pastries they had to offer. Her mouth began watering at the mere thought of her taste buds coming into contact and savouring the delicious and oh-so exquisite sweets.

"Yay!" Elizabeth cheered excitedly as she hopped in place, "This is why you're the best brother, like, ever!" She claimed while attempting to lock her brother into another one of her signature vice grip tight hugs, though to her dismay Axel had anticipated such thing and merely placed his hand in front of him and stopped her in her tracks.

"Yeah yeah," He playfully sighed, "Now go get dressed. We'll be late for school if you don't hurry."

With those final words, Elizabeth giggled and skipped nonchalantly out of Axel's room. Axel now stood alone in his room, smiling to himself before resuming his cleaning. He began tossing away some trash consisting mainly of wrappers he had left the night before during one of his midnight raids in the kitchen. While doing so he looked to a calendar situated besides his overhead displaying the picture of a beautiful scenery notorious to Johto. Underneath the picture the text 'April' was displayed followed by multiple days being crossed out with a red line, except for one with a giant red circle around it and with red writing inside saying ' _Finally becoming a trainer_!' in giant bold letters. Axel couldn't help but smile even more at the sight of this. ' _Today's the day!'_ He thought to himself as he fist bumped the air with renown vigor. Each passing minute felt like an eternity for the young boy as he hurriedly cleaned his room and readied his uniform.

* * *

Back in the kitchen, a tray with the charred remains of the Muffins rested on the counter. Axel's mother had her head hanging low as she was hunched over besides the tray, the corner of her eyes beginning to form tears. A bellossom attempted it's best to cheer her up by rubbing her head gently with its small stubby hand.

' _I'm such a terrible mom…'_ She sulked as she glanced once more at her failure. The bellossom muttered in a gentle tone in its own tongue what one would assume words of conciliation, but alas falling to deaf ears as her master began questioning her role as a mother and if she was actually suited to being one.

"I can't even make a proper breakfast for my kids…" She pouted. She did her best to hold back tears, something that proved increasingly difficult as she kept reminding herself of all her mistakes in the past. As she dwelled about her failures, footsteps echoed through the stairway and down them Axel came about with a cheery smile. He wore a uniform consisting of a white shirt with with blue lining along the sleeves and a logo embedded to his left with the words 'Pokemon Trainer School' etched beneath it. Behind him, his sister hurriedly followed suite; her uniform consisting of a similar white shirt with a yellow lining on the sleeves serving as a differentiator between the two, and unlike her brother, her white skirt with similar lining fluttered side to side as she lightly skipped down the stairs. Both siblings quickly grabbed their bags that hung beside the door and dashed out of the house without a word.

"At least say good bye!" Their mother childishly whined while hurriedly attempting to catch up to them.

"Later mom!" Both siblings responded now a good distance away.

"Make sure to stop by the Boutique after school!" She cried out as she stood at the entrance of her house.

"Will do!" Both siblings once more yelled, this time barely audible as they further distanced themselves.

Their mother was left alone, the charred Muffins and the bellossom now serving as her only company. She took one last look at the muffins and analyzed them, then she looked back at her trusty pokémon.

"I don't suppose you want them, Bella?" She inquired as she offered one of the burned Muffins to her bellossom. Bella merely let out a faint squeal of disgust as she caught scent of the charred remains. "Oh shut it…" Axel's mother sulked as she chucked the Muffin over her shoulder and into a trash can, pouting as she did so.

* * *

The siblings by now had already managed to reach the outskirts of Aquacorde as the familiar scenery they had witnessed countless of times welcomed them once more. Elizabeth skipped nonchalantly beside her brother, seemingly not wanting to keep her feet down for too long as she hurriedly swapped between them; A low harmonic hum emanating from her while she did so. Axel merely kept on walking though this time around he was unusually going faster with an evident grin beaming with joy. He could hardly hold his excitement as his lifelong dream was about to become a reality in a few hours.

"Slow down, Axel!" Elizabeth cried as she struggled to keep up with him, causing him to snap out of his trance. At some point he had begun jogging and had left his sister behind. Axel felt his face slightly heat up a bit as he realized he had lost thought of what he was doing, causing him to momentarily abandon his sister.

"Geez you're not the only one who's hungry, y'know." She complained while finally matching her brother's pace once again.

Both siblings laughed off the incident and continued their way onto Aquacorde as per usual, but were interrupted as their eyes vered to the welcoming sight of a small girl in a similar uniform as Elizabeth who was walking down the same path as them. Elizabeth's large crystal blue eyes widened as she caught sight of the girl and immediately sprinted forward towards her, completely dismissing her earlier complaint about Axel leaving her behind.

"Misayo!" Elizabeth cheerily cried out to the girl ahead. Misayo's sun kissed long silky hair swayed gently to the side as she turned at the sound of the familiar voice. Her hazel eyes emanating a youthful spark as she locked eyes with her childhood friend.

Elizabeth collided head on against Misayo before she could manage a single greeting, tightly embracing her in one of her signature hugs. The young girl could only submit to her friend and hope to get out of this situation unscathed while struggling for air.

"Good morning, Eli." Misayo struggled to greet the energetic girl while attempting to conserve some of her breath.

Finally, as an act from the gods themselves, Elizabeth lessened her grip on her poor friend. Misayo attempted to pass the incident off by trying to remain composed as she took a single step back and fixed her outfit. While Misayo regained her breath, Elizabeth couldn't help but survey the area, tirelessly looking around until finally addressing Misayo once again.

"Where's Kira?" She inquired with a slight tilt of her head.

"She went ahead." Misayo replied while glancing quickly over to Axel who stood nonchalantly behind his sister. She waved slightly at him followed by a gentle heartfelt smile. "Kira said she wanted to get a head start over the others." She added while taking one last quick glance at Axel.

At the mention of Kira already being ahead of him, Axel's eyes shut wide open and felt a fiery passion overwhelming him as he immediately took out his wallet and swiftly took out some money and slammed it into his sister's book bag causing her to almost fall over from the sudden forceful jerk.

"Go buy breakfast for yourself!" Axel exclaimed as he sprinted furiously towards school.

"Hey wait!" Elizabeth cried out while attempting to grab onto her brother though tragically her reaction was too slow for Axel's speed as all she could see by now was the dust trail her brother left behind as he bolted out of her sight.

Misayo simply giggled at the sudden change of mood within Axel while Elizabeth pouted, her shoulders slouched forward and loosely grasping unto the money her brother gave her. Upon closer inspection, Elizabeth realized that her brother had given way more than necessary during his rush. With all the money she had she could enjoy a very sweet and sugary breakfast. Her pout soon after turned to a mischievous smile as she realized her brother's mistake. She turned to Misayo with certain glee and mischief on her face as well as some slight drool dripping as she began fantasizing about the sweets she would buy with the money her brother carelessly gave her. Misayo gave a confused look at Elizabeth and soon after found herself being dragged forcefully to a nearby café.

"H-hold on, Elizabeth!" Misayo stammered as her friend pulled her into the shop, but alas she was completely ignored as Elizabeth had turned into a mindless being whose only goal and purpose was to eat the sweets that resided within. "We're going to be late for school!" Misayo let out a spine chilling cry but was soon silenced as Elizabeth stuffed a piece of cake into Misayo's mouth and forcing her to try a large array of pastries.

 **Howdy ho! I hope you enjoyed this first chapter in my story. I've been away from writing for such a long time so I decided to start a new project in order to regain my momentum. Please feel free to give constructive** **criticism since I'm aware this chapter was riddled with mistakes. I just couldn't come up with a better way, but hopefully yall beautiful people will be able aide me.**

 **Anyways, thats it for me! I hope yall have a wonderful day! Cheers! :D**


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